


Werewolf Shiftin' Shiftin'!

by thecloserdotmp3



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Comedy, Kinda?, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Multi, POV Alternating, Slow Burn, eventually ppl will start dicking each other down but not yet, hakyeon has a big mouth and even bigger shoulders bc he carries everyone's stupidity, kenvi are in that annoying are we or arent we dating stage, think of this as a comedic murder mystery romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:35:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28404114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecloserdotmp3/pseuds/thecloserdotmp3
Summary: “Alright, Shift back now, hyung. I think you have some explaining to do.”“What are you--” the neighbor cuts himself off when the wolf in his living room changes into a human right before his very eyes. Sanghyuk watches as he goes from pale to bright red in absolute embarrassment once he notices that Jaehwan is indeed naked and not at all hiding what he’s got.Jaehwan catches him staring and winks, “Nice to meet you neighbor!” Sanghyuk is going to kill him.sanghyuk just wants to live a peaceful life blending in with humans, but that's hard when he's living with idiotic hyungs in love, being chased by blood thirsty werewolves, and unable to stop running into his cute upstairs neighbor that totally shouldn't get involved with
Relationships: Han Sanghyuk | Hyuk/Jung Taekwoon | Leo, Kim Wonshik | Ravi/Lee Jaehwan | Ken
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	Werewolf Shiftin' Shiftin'!

**Author's Note:**

> local werewolves arrive in town and immediately blow their cover. (it's jaehwan's fault). 
> 
> p.s. i don't usually write with so many pov changes but limiting to one pov a chapter with so many moving parts i plan on having well.......this would end up with 200 chapters

“Oh,” Taekwoon mutters to himself, turning away from his laptop to stare out past the gates that separates the apartment’s highly coveted pool towards the parking lot reserved for tenants of the complex. “It’s the new neighbors.” 

Hakyeon doesn’t say anything. Just glances at him briefly before going back to sunbathing in the lounge chair--entirely too comfortable for someone who doesn’t live here. His look is a mix of “Duh, I already told you someone new was moving in” and “Shouldn’t you be working on your composition?” 

Taekwoon definitely  _ should  _ be working on his composition, but he’s curious now. So he continues to stare, watching as three men pour out of the old model van. One of them has to be helped out of the backseat, leaning on another eccentrically dressed man as he limps towards Residential Services. 

A few days ago Hakyeon had gotten news of someone moving into the empty apartment below him. Gossip worthy news because the new tenants were signing a lease without ever seeing the place and planned on paying the security deposit entirely in cash. 

Taekwoon is sure their landlord is breaching some sort of tenant law by readily spilling info to anyone nosey enough to inquire, but he couldn’t deny his interest in his new neighbors and listened to Hakyeon intently. Even if he was pretending not to. 

That interest increases tenfold when the last man climbs out of the driver’s seat to stretch his long limbs. Nice legs. Nice shoulders. No ass, unfortunately. Mr. Tall and Broad turns, looking in Taekwoon’s direction and their eyes lock. 

It’s hard to make out the other man’s features from this distance, but the vague picture Taekwoon gets is enough to make his cheeks heat up. Especially when the other man offers a cheeky wave and a smile before being called away by a deep voice. 

Taekwoon curls up into an embarrassed ball. Next to him Hakyeon continues to luxuriate in the sun. “Already got your hooks in the new neighbor, huh?” 

“Shut  _ up _ , Hakyeon.” 

“I’m not judging. I’m just really impressed at how well you reel in men. You’re like some kind of gay siren.” 

“ _ Hyung! _ ”

And Taekwoon’s climbing out of his own lounge chair, leaping upon a laughing Hakyeon to shut him up for good.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


“Hyuk!”

Sanghyuk tears his eyes from the pretty man at the pool. Wonshik is halfway across the parking lot connecting all of the apartment buildings, but his frown is clear plain as day. 

“Coming! No need to yell,” Sanghyuk grumps. He casts one last look over his shoulder to catch another glimpse of the man from before who is now too busy trying to throw his friend into the pool to pay him any attention. A part of Sanghyuk is already wondering if he lives here, and what he can do to run into him again. 

Well, see him again when his best friend isn’t bleeding out from claw marks, and the three of them have more than a hundred dollars to their collective names. 

Jaehwan grins encouragingly as Sanghyuk joins them under the awning of Residential Services. “You ready for this?” 

“No,” Sanghyuk spares a terrified glance into the glass of the front door. The trim of the building is an inviting green, the facade clean and charming. It should be comforting, but the normalcy of it all does the exact opposite. “The humans won’t...think we’re suspicious or anything will they?”

Out of the three of them, Sanghyuk’s the only one that has never been away from the pack, let alone live with humans. The most contact he’s ever had with them was tagging along with his sister to pick up food deliveries from the nearby town. As far as he could tell, they always thought they were a bunch of closed off religious fanatics rather than werewolves. 

“You’re giving humans too much credit,” Wonshik snorts, “Just don’t sniff too much around them and they won’t notice a thing.” 

“And judging by the things they write I think they’d be excited to know a werewolf...Or at least sleep with one.” 

Wonshik and Sanghyuk roll their eyes completely in tandem. It’s hard to tell if they should be worried or thankful for the way Jaehwan refuses to take anything seriously even if he’s the one who nearly died getting here. 

“Okay.” Sanghyuk squares his shoulders. “We got this. What’s our cover story again guys?” 

“We are three best friends from a small town near Daegu moving to the big city looking for job opportunities,” Jaehwan recites mechanically, having been over this at least a hundred times in the car. 

“Good. And why are you limping?”

“Because I took a massive dick the night before without enough prep--” Sanghyuk makes to lunge at his idiot hyung but before he can get his hands around Jaehwan’s neck, Wonshik is already half carrying half dragging him out of the way. 

Out of all the people he trusted to smuggle him away from the pack he trusted Lee Jaehwan. What was past Sanghyuk thinking?

The inside of Residential Services is just as nice as the outside; the interior made bright and spacious with all of the light colored wood and off-white walls. As they enter, a woman behind the desk smiles warmly at them. “How can I help you all?” 

At the harmless question, both Wonshik and Jaehwan turn to look at Sanghyuk. Clearly they’re designating him the role of the talker. Who the fuck knows why. But he plasters on his fakest, most harmless smile “Hi, um we’re the new tenants for apartment building 7?”

“Oh!” her face lights up. “Yes! I remember talking on the phone with you! I got your payment, all I need for you to do is stamp this paperwork and get you your keycode!” 

She doesn’t ask them any probing questions or look at them strangely when the cat sleeping on the windowsill tucks tail and flees after getting a good sniff of them. Jaehwan spins a totally fabricated yarn about pulling a muscle trying to move a whole couch single handedly down the stairs as he flips through the lease. He’s not reading a word of it, but successfully has everyone in the office charmed by his outlandishness. 

Wonshik’s in awe. “Who knew Jaehwan-hyung’s big mouth would come in handy one day?” 

“I never would’ve imagined it,” Sanghyuk whispers back, holding back laughter. 

Leases stamped and filed away, the three of them are each given the code to get into their apartment. Just like that the past six months of tense preparation was worth it for  _ this.  _ Sanghyuk thinks he might faint from happiness. 

Their building is towards the back of the complex, a gate separating them from what looks to be a park. Sanghyuk’s left dragging up all their things as Wonshik piggybacks his injured princess, so once he’s made it up to the entrance of their apartment the door’s already unlocked and all he has to do is push the door open with his hip to step into the well-lit living room.

The hyungs pay no attention to his awkward crab-walk shuffle to drop all their stuff onto the comfortable looking couch, nor do they offer help. Jaehwan’s busy opening each of the bedroom doors in an effort to claim the “best” room for himself while Wonshik trails behind him anxiously. 

Sanghyuk rolls his eyes. Watching Wonshik play helicopter mom got old the third time he insisted on spoon feeding Jaehwan so he wouldn’t “agitate his injury”. They just need to get married already. 

Instead of dealing with  _ that,  _ Sanghyuk wanders around the common areas, admiring all of the furnishings. (They have wood cabinets in the kitchen.  _ Hickory. _ ). By all means the apartment is humble lodging; neat, clean and cozy. 

Humble as they may be, Sanghyuk’s more than a little proud that this whole place belongs to  _ them.  _ Well, they’re renting so they don’t really  _ own  _ it. The point still stands however. Six months ago he thought Jaehwan was out of his mind when he proposed his plan for the three of them to make a break for it. And here they are. 

“Oooooooooooooooooooh! Wonshikkie!” Jaehwan yells from inside one of the bedrooms, effectively ruining Sanghyuk’s emotional moment. “Look at how nice the bathrooms are! I can’t wait to masturbate in here!” 

“Gross, hyung!” Sanghyuk screams back, wandering over towards the bedrooms as well. “No one needs to know what you do with your dick!”

“Language young man! You’re too young to use profanity!” 

Not this again. “Hyung, I’m 24.”

Jaehwan appears in the doorway, smile just short of being patronizing. “Look Wonshik-ah, our baby Hyukkie ran away from home and thinks he’s an adult now. Tell me

Equally as patronizing, Wonshik  _ awwwwwwws  _ at him. “They grow up so fast,” he coos, holding Jaehwan around the waist as if they are his disgustingly sappy parents. 

“I hate both of you,” Sanghyuk pantomimes vomiting at the sight of their affection. “Let’s just pick rooms before I really puke.” 

Group decisions are, as always, decided by rock paper scissors. Jaehwan wins first pick, using his freaky rock paper scissors special power, picking the room on the far right. Apparently the window placement in that room is incredibly important to him. 

Sanghyuk doesn’t bother to ask why. 

Him and Wonshik play a few more rounds, ending with Sanghyuk taking the room on the left and Wonshik in the middle. Furnishings are just as tasteful and sparse in the bedrooms as the rest of the apartment, so there isn’t much for Sanghyuk to do in his new space except for stretch out in the bed and curiously opening every cabinet in the bathroom. 

The space looks to be no bigger than the room he had before after his sister was deemed too old to have to sharel. It’s the lack of decorations or signs of life that makes it feel infinitely bigger. And lonely. 

He even finds himself missing the errant claw marks on his wall from his first Shift during puberty. If it wasn’t a violation of their lease thing he’d scratch up a wall for the comfort of it. Before he can start to feel homesick for a home he doesn’t have anymore, Wonshik, blessed Wonshik, begins to whine that he’s hungry. 

Sanghyuk follows the pleas for sustenance to where Wonshik’s splayed out on the floor of the living in agony. “Hyuk-ah. Dinner.”

“I heard you the first  _ twenty _ times. Order something. We can pick up necessities tomorrow, if you guys don’t mind roughing it tonight.” 

“I don’t mind,” Jaehwan comes limping in to join them, dropping down heavily into a chair. “Sleeping without sheets is better than trying to sleep in the car. Especially with the way the two of you drive.” 

Wonshik frowns, offended. “Hey, I am not a bad driver. Hyuk-ah’s the one that hits curbs all the time. I am a natural behind the wheel,” he brags. Jaehwan scoffs dismissively, immediately starting a heated argument about driving technique. As if it’s that serious. 

In Sanghyuk’s opinion, Jaehwan should be happy he knows how to drive at all. Most werewolves have no need for the knowledge. The only reason Jaehwan was taught to drive was because his older brother is a city wolf living on the outskirts of Seoul and told him one day the skill would come in handy. 

Being a good driver is not high on Sanghyuk’s lists of priorities. And speaking of lists, Sanghyuk grabs the spare pad of paper and the pen off the low-sitting table near him. He clicks the pen over and over, bringing it closer and closer to his hyungs until they stop arguing in favor of glaring at him in annoyance. “Enough fighting children. It’s time to focus on making this place liveable. Any thoughts on what we need?” 

All at once, the three of them turn to look at the meager amount of belongings they managed to bring with them. Five suitcases full of clothes and belongings. A backpack. A colander, a strainer Jaehwan got from somewhere, and a bunch of blankets Sanghyuk’s sister had managed to thrust into his arms before their pack leader’s lackeys came to find them. 

“Everything,” Jaehwan says, breaking the silence. “We need everything.” 

Sanghyuk nods. “Right. Sheets, plates, silverware, toilet tissues, soap, toothbrushes. Groceries....lots and lots of groceries.” 

“And meat!”

“What part of we’re broke don’t you understand?” Sanghyuk scolds, stern expression not breaking even when Jaehwan deflates like a balloon and fixes puppy dog eyes on them. They’ve all known each other for over two decades now. Jaehwan’s cutesy act has gotten old. 

Old or not, Wonshik, the sap, still falls for it. Just a single glance at Jaehwan’s pouting lips and he’s coming to his defense. “Surely we’re not too broke to afford  _ meat _ , Hyuk-ah.” 

“We will be!”

Before Sanghyuk can lunch into a very lengthy breakdown of their finances, Wonshik hurries in to defend Jaehwan’s stubborn demands for meat. “Don’t you think it’s too soon to be this stingy? We’ve already got three months of rent paid thanks to the money from Jaehwan-hyung’s brother. That’s plenty of enough time for us to find work. We all know no employer doesn’t fall in love with me,” Wonshik ends smugly. 

“That’s because you’re a suck up,” Jaehwan says, earning a slap on his uninjured side. But because it’s Jaehwan he cries out in over exaggerated pain, screaming as if he were truly hurt. 

Wonshik keeps talking over the theatrics, “And Hyung’s already promised a job with your sister’s friend once he heals up...however long that’ll take.” 

“All I need is one good Shift in the wild and I’ll be as good as new,” Jaehwan brags, flexing his muscles. Regretting it in an instant as it irritates his wounds. 

The other werewolves stare at him. Trust Jaehwan, a veritable genius, who thought of replacing all their phones to avoid being tracked, to not understand the first rule of living with humans. 

“Hyung,” Sanghyuk starts, talking like one might to a child. “You can’t Shift outside where humans can see you--even  _ I  _ know that.” 

Jaehwan blinks at him as if it wouldn’t be weird for giant wolves to appear around a random apartment complex. “Why not?” He gestures at the big bay windows behind them, “There’s a whole forest right there! That’s plenty of room for us to hang out in wolf form!” 

“That’s what humans call a park,” Wonshik tells him patiently. “It would be different if it was just one of us, but there are already a handful of loner wolves in the city. Add the three of us, that’s just too many wolves in such a small area. A single human has enough technology in their back pockets to blow open the best kept supernatural secret of centuries. The Korean government will sell our bodies to Americans for testing.” 

As he tells all this to Jaehwan, the hyung in question frowns deeper and deeper until he looks more like a raisin than a person. “No one told me living off the grid would be this hard,” he whines. 

“Our pack leader sent, like, five wolves, to try and to kill us, including his own  _ son _ , just for disobeying him. And you’re only  _ just now _ figuring out this.....isn’t.....” Wonshik trails off, sheepish, realizing he’s let slip something they’ve all been avoiding ever since they’ve started on this journey. 

Their ex pack leader, and the wolf that’s been out to get them this whole time is Sanghyuk’s father. While an incredibly awkward subject to breach, the other two have been nice enough to only shit talk Sanghyuk’s father when they were sure the youngest was asleep in the passenger seat. 

Jaehwan’s bitching always woke him up, but Sanghyuk appreciates the thought nonetheless. He supposes they’ll have to talk about things eventually. The hyungs are always getting together to whisper their theories on how Sanghyuk’s father fell ill and became a raving dictator all in the span of less than a year. 

Sanghyuk would like to know as well. The man who demanded they could not leave the pack with their lives with glowing red eyes is not the man who raised him.

Back in the present, Sanghyuk does his best to smile and laugh, but his acting must be subpar because Jaehwan throws a coaster at a still repentant Wonshik. “Good going. Wanna put something else in your mouth alongside your foot?” 

“Yeah your ass.”

That makes Sanghyuk laugh. A genuine one this time. “Trust me we all know how much you want Jyani-hyung’s ass in your mouth. No need to announce it to the world.” 

“Han Sanghyuk you are a child. A baby. You shouldn’t know anything about....about....oh I can’t even say it.” Jaehwan clutches at his heart, pretending that he’s about to faint while poor Wonshik blushes bright red.

“Hyung, you talk about sex all the time. Of course I know about rimmi--”

Jaehwan shrieks, yanking out a couch cushion from underneath all of their shit so he can both beat Sanghyuk with it and cover his ears. “Wonshik! Look at what you’ve done! You’ve corrupted him!”

“Me?” Wonshik does his best to field off Jaehwan’s flailing, taking several hits to the face. To Sanghyuk’s horror Wonshik actually looks  _ hurt _ by the accusation. “I’ve been nothing but a good hyung.  _ You’re _ the problem here!” 

It’s less of a fight and more of Wonshik being too afraid to accidentally hurt Jaehwan and Jaehwan taking full advantage of that. Sanghyuk figures that eventually Jaehwan will get bored with beating the snot out of Wonshik, so he starts scrolling through all of the places they can get delivery from.

“Oooo bibimbap,” Sanghyuk’s stomach growls with insert. “How do we feel ab--”

“I only eat my grandmother’s bibimbap,” Wonshik complains, now trying to stop Jaehwan from giving him a wet willy. They’re children.

“Japchae then?”

Jaehwan’s frowns, both from the suggestion and Wonshik’s determined wiggling away from his spit covered fingers. “No thank you, next.”

“Pho?”

“Not cold enough.”

“Thai food?”

“Hmmm, nah.”

“Pizza?” Sanghyuk offers, nearing the end of his rope. He’s getting all of the annoyance of being a parent without the benefit of a hot significant other to sleep with after their aggravating kids go to sleep. 

Jaehwan has the nerve to look at  _ Sanghyuk _ as if he isn’t taking this seriously. “You’re lactose intolerant, Hyukkie.” And then he goes back to terrorizing Wonshik, both of them too busy wrestling in the most homo no homo way possible. 

Alright, time to put an end to this. Sanghyuk prides himself on being the strongest of the three despite being the youngest, so it takes little effort to pull Wonshik and his fake muscles away from a now screaming Jaehwan. “I am  _ so _ flattered that the two of you would fight for my honor like this,” he says, batting his eyelashes “But I’d rather eat tteokbokki over watching you two flirt like animals any day.”

“How is hyung biting me flirting?” Wonshik deflects. Dumb question. They all know Jaehwan shows affection by biting, attacking, and screaming. 

Sanghyuk doesn’t deign to bring that up; he promised himself years ago that he would never get involved in the convoluted courtship his hyungs have going on. Instead he just shoves his phone into Wonshik’s hands. “Here. Order what you want while I help the elderly with his injuries.” 

For once, Jaehwan doesn’t complain about being called old. Just lets himself be half carried to a chair to be tended to while Wonshik begins to argue with himself on whether or not he should get jajangmyeon or tteokbokki. 

They’ve done this enough so that Jaehwan already knows to lift up his shirt to reveal his side when Sanghyuk comes over with the first aid kit. A bit of blood has seeped through the bandages again, but Sanghyuk is happy to note that the amount decreases every time they do this. 

Healing or not, the deep gashes still make Sanghyuk queasy as he unwraps the bandages. Soohyun got him good. 

“If you think this looks bad you’d hate to see the other guy”, Jaehwan jokes like he always does. Weird flex considering Jaehwan nearly bled out in the backseat of their van, but he isn’t wrong. Though the details of their escape three nights ago are a bit fuzzy, Sanghyuk holds the memory of Jaehwan Shifting just long enough to put his teeth to good use near and dear to his heart. They didn’t stay long enough to survey the damage, but Sanghyuk doesn’t doubt Soohyun’s gonna be left with some serious scarring. 

“How many times are you gonna use that line, hyung?”

Jaehwan’s smile is unusually warm when he says, “Until you stop looking so guilty about me getting hurt.” When Sanghyuk gapes up at him, touched, Jaehwan bursts into pained laughter. “

The look on your face! Oh, you’re killing me! Who wouldn’t notice you looking guilty all the time? Oh! My side. ”

“But--” Sanghyuk wrings his hands sheepishly “This was my--”

“--This was not your fault.” Jaehwan interrupts, suddenly serious. “It was my plan to get us out of there. None of us could’ve known Minhyuk would snitch. Unless you’re psychic then, yeah, you should have given me a heads up or something.” Sanghyuk continues to look like a kicked puppy so Jaehwan thumps him right in the nose. 

“Attempted noseslaughter,” Sanghyuk whines, jerking away from Jaehwan and his thumping fingers. “I try to stop you from getting gangrene and this is how you treat me? This is big nose on big nose violence!”

Jaehwan thumps him on the forehead this time. “I’m  _ trying _ to beat all of that stupid guilt right out of you! I’m alive! Some claw marks were just a small price to pay for freedom. After all, I'm too cute to spend my whole life in some hick town for werewolves.” Here Jaehwan gives Sanghyuk his best aegyo, sparkly eyes and all. “The battle scars will just add to my charm. Now no more guilt! I won’t allow it!”

So overcome with emotion, Sanghyuk can’t think of anything to say other than just “Thank you, hyung.”

Sanghyuk knows he’s blushing, and tries to hide it before Jaehwan does something really gay. But it’s too late. His hyung is already wrapping him up in a hug--not caring that he has an open wound right this very second. 

Unwilling to ruin the moment, Sanghyuk allows himself to be coddled, even returning the hug somewhat and patting the other on the back . It’s not everyday that Jaehwan decides to be serious. Unless of course he wants something….

Wonshik looks up to find the two of them locked in an embrace, not even questioning what’s going on before he’s joining in. For a moment it seems like he’s going to say something profound, maybe reaffirm that they’re all in this together--

“Should I get the seafood or steak tteokbokki?” 

“God you are such a mood killer,” Jaehwan complains. 

Sanghyuk laughs. He couldn’t wish for better idiots to build a life with. 

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  
  


It takes them (Jaehwan) an obnoxiously long amount of time to decide on what to order, and then to argue over how they’re going to split the bill. By time the food arrives it’s already dark out, the waning moon painting the whole night silver. 

Regardless of the hour, they eat, they drink, they are merry. And everything seems to taste ten times better now that the three of them are no longer holed up in the van eating cheap meals from convenience stores trying to lay low and avoid being seen (or smelled). 

Empty containers are strewn around the living room when they’re done, a mess that they all collectively decide to clean up in the morning. Jaehwan’s the first one to go to bed--or rather half dragged half carried to bed, allegedly too exhausted from his wounds to walk himself.    


“If you sleep in wolf form tonight don’t forget to close your blinds,” Sanghyuk tells him as they dump him onto the unmade bed. “Don’t wanna freak out the neighbors when they see a giant wolf just hanging around.”

“Yes, mommy,” Jaehwan slurs, sounding already half asleep. Once they’re sure their hyung is as comfortable as he can be with nothing but a rolled up sweatshirt as a pillow and an old Hello Kitty blanket, Wonshik and Sanghyuk leave back out towards the living room. 

Something compels Sanghyuk to glance back at the now sleeping Jaehwan. He can’t help but to shake the feeling that Jaehwan is up to something. “...Why do I have the feeling Jaehwan-hyung is gonna do something stupid?” 

“You don’t trust him enough,” Wonshik defends. 

“You trust him too  _ much. _ But I’m serious. Do you think he’s gonna burn down the apartment tonight or tomorrow?” 

Wonshik’s yawn is so mighty it brings tears to his eyes. “Hopefully tomorrow. I don’t wanna wake up just to evacuate. It’s gonna be the first night in a real bed in two days; I plan on enjoying it. ‘Night, Hyukkie.” 

And then he’s gone to his room. Werewolves sure are adaptive creatures, Sanghyuk thinks as he stares at the blank wall of the living room for a moment. Here they are wondering  _ when _ not  _ if  _ Jaehwan will fuck up the apartment. 

Back in his own room, Sanghyuk’s finding sleep to be elusive despite how heavenly it is to sink into the mattress and close his eyes. His body is exhausted but his mind refuses to wind down. The room is too quiet, even with Wonshik’s earth shaking snores seeping in from next door. There was always noise back with the pack, someone always stopping by to see his father or the night watch howling to each other as they patrol the surrounding areas. 

Here in the city things feel a lot more...secluded. Ironically. Humans are all packed in together so close knit, but all living their own separate lives. An unbidden wave of homesickness, grips him as he stares at the bare walls before him. 

But beneath the homesickness is determination. Sanghyuk doesn’t care how different the city is. There’s no way he’s going back to a father that’s so power hungry he’d be willing to kill the same kids he helped raise. 

He’s still going to be homesick for his sister’s breakfast come morning though. As he finally drifts off to sleep he thinks that, distantly, he can hear howling. 

  
  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Jaehwan wakes up in the middle of the night and makes the impulsive decision to Shift outside. Bad idea or not, he can’t be cooped inside in wolf form. Yes he loves a good scratch behind the ears but he is not a  _ dog _ . 

It’s easy enough to tell Wonshik’s gone to sleep. Those snores could be heard a kilometer away. Sanghyuk’s a bit trickier, but he can’t hear the faint sounds of Naruto compilation videos so he’s probably in the clear. 

A quick check of his phone tells Jaehwan that he’s only got a couple hours before sunrise so he won’t go far. “Freedom here I come,” Jaehwan cackles to himself as he strips out of his clothes. The cool night air feels heavenly on his skin as he slowly slides open the window. He was right to choose this room, instead of the window facing out towards the street with a steep drop down, it leads out onto the landing that connects all the other apartments. 

Shifting is a simple affair; with nothing but a thought he’s all muscle and fur, jumping out of the window and bounding out towards freedom. His injury still aches some, especially when he pushes himself into a sprint away from the over exposed area around the apartments and towards the safety of this so-called “park”. 

Jaehwan runs and runs, sticking to the dark thickets of trees. The city is full of sights and smells--and way too bright. Worst of all, there’s not enough  _ nature.  _ A tree here, a bush there, all neatly manicured and kept in a tiny little section of land so they can make room for benches and those fancy surfaces called playgrounds. 

Loathe as he is to admit it, Wonshik  _ was  _ right. This park is tiny in comparison to the endless acres of untouched land back in the country. In no time Jaehwan is bored, wondering just how far he can go with his dwindling energy reserves and return to the apartment before Sanghyuk notices he’s gone and bitches at him. 

Just as he decides to fuck it and explore further, he notices a smell. The smell of another wolf--wolves,  _ plural,  _ if the howling that starts up right after is any indication. 

And whoever these wolves are: they’re hunting

Jaehwan doesn’t want to stick around to find out  _ what  _ they’re hunting, even though he’s got a good idea if these wolves are the ones he knows. Luckily they’re upwind from him, meaning they can’t smell him yet.

If the wolf gods are listening to his prayers, it’ll stay that way. Already he can feel himself slowing down as he hoofs it (paws it?) back to the relative safety of the apartments. What good are werewolf healing powers when using them drains so much energy? Jaehwan wonders to himself. 

Maybe the injury Soohyun gave him was more serious than he thought. Bastard. 

The leap over the fence in this state is brutal, and the only thing worse are the stairs. At least it’s still too early enough for humans to be roaming around the complex, otherwise they’d get the shock of their life seeing a wolf practically asleep on their paws and dragging itself around. 

Each flight of steps feels like a mountain, and Jaehwan  _ swears _ the trip up was shorter when Wonshik carried him up. 

_ Finally _ Jaehwan’s at the top of the stairs, his open window in sight. He’s so tired he can barely see, and has to muster up the last of his energy to clamor back inside. Too exhausted to Shift back, Jaehwan slinks into bed. 

He doesn’t remember having so many blankets on his bed or the room smelling so good, and if he were more awake he’d question what the warmth emanating from the other side of the bed means. But for now he’s just exhausted.

Exhausted and hungry, and how the  _ fuck  _ is he gonna tell the other two about what he heard tonight?

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  


Taekwoon is not a morning person. To the point where it’s a common occurrence every holiday season for his family to recount their best stories of Taekwoon falling asleep while brushing his teeth or his nonsensical mumbling when they tried to wake him up for school. 

He wasn’t a morning person then, and he’s definitely not a morning person now after making the mistake of drinking wine with Hakyeon knowing he has work in the morning. One does not simply invite Cha Hakyeon over to your home without expecting to gossip into the midnight hours. 

Running on auto-pilot, Taekwoon silences his phone alarm then makes his way to the kitchen like a human shaped coffee homing beacon. There’s nothing in his head as he shovels his bougie coffee mix into the machine and pours in the water. It isn’t until the aroma of fresh dark roast wafts through the kitchen does Taekwoon’s mind begin to catch up with his body. 

The sleep fog has lifted enough for Taekwoon to feel his toes and remember how to speak, when he notices the distinct clicking of animal nails on the hardwood floors. Taekwoon smiles, thinking it’s his neighbor’s cat come over to beg for scraps again (which may or may not be why he left his window open all last night, and is exactly why he keeps spare cans of fancy cat food in his cabinet), but what appears out the hallway is a wolf. 

A real life wolf. A living, breathing,  _ huge _ wolf covered in what Taekwoon would consider pretty looking brown and black fur if he weren’t fucking  _ terrified. _ The wolf notices him standing there like an idiot and freezes. 

With a shaking hand, Taekwon pinches himself hard hoping that this will all be a result of getting too little sleep and too much exposure to news of the wolf omegaverse lawsuit. Except the wolf doesn’t disappear. 

It hits Taekwoon then that he is going to be mauled in his own home. And with that realization Taekwoon screams. 

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Sanghyuk doesn’t know exactly when he fell asleep. One second he’s going over his top 20 Naruto fights in his head and the next he’s being startled awake by a blood-curdling scream. 

At least that’s what he thinks wakes him up, for a moment he’s so disoriented he doesn’t even remember where he is. From above him there’s a couple of hard thuds and then another scream, like his upstairs neighbor is either fighting a burglar or the biggest spider in existence. 

He checks the clock. 7am. Too early to be a burglar then? Concerned--and confused-- Sanghyuk hops out of bed, bypassing Wonshik’s room for Jaehwan’s. In the time it would take for him to wake up Wonshik, their poor neighbor will have been eaten by the giant spider they’re fighting. 

Plus Jaehwan’s nosey. 

“Hey, hyung?” Sanghyuk calls as he knocks on Jaehwan’s door. “I think the person upstairs is starting a fight club--” There’s another, louder thud from above. “--Or something? I think I’m gonna go see if they’re okay or at least stop them from busting a whole in our ceiling, you wanna come with?” 

No answer. Unwilling to waste any more time, Sanghyuk abandons the niggling feeling to check to make sure Jaehwan hasn’t smothered himself in his sleep in favor of hurrying out of the apartment. He takes the stairs two at a time and is only just rounding the corner when the door to his neighbor’s apartment flies open and someone is colliding into him. 

Sanghyuk manages to catch the person by the elbows before the two of them go flying backwards over the railing. The person in question turns wild, fearful eyes up at him and Sanghyuk’s jaw drops because it’s  _ him _ , the pretty guy from the pool he saw when they first arrived. And Sanghyuk is currently pressed chest to chest with him, close enough to make out the beauty mark beneath his eye. 

“T-t-t-here’s a w-w-olf,” the man stutters, sounding fully spooked. 

“A wolf?” Sanghyuk repeats, heartbeat picking up for a totally different reason now. He glances over Pretty Pool Boy’s shoulder to see Jaehwan. In wolf form. Sitting in the doorway looking as sheepish as he can without human features.

Pretty Pool Boy follows his gaze and pales. Grabbing Sanghyuk’s arm he turns to pull them both towards the stairs, but the younger stands his ground. “Wait! It’s okay! He won’t hurt you!”

“Are you kidding?” he doubles down on his efforts to move Sanghyuk, actually contesting the other’s werewolf strength a bit. Okay... that’s kinda hot. “That’s not a  _ dog _ ! We have to--wait  _ he _ ? You--you  _ knew  _ there was a wolf in the building? Is this your  _ pet _ ?”

Sanghyuk winces at the intensity of the other man’s gaze. It’s a good look on him though. “Jaehwan’s not a pet.......no.” God, how does he explain this? “But he isn’t going to hurt you I promise. Can we just? Go inside and talk this out?” 

The other man doesn’t look comforted in the slightest, but seems just as reluctant to leave Sanghyuk alone with what he thinks is a wild animal. Nervously he latches onto Sanghyuk’s shirt, standing behind him as the taller begins to herd Jaehwan further into the apartment before someone  _ else _ sees them. 

When they’re inside safe from prying eyes, Sanghyuk nods. “Alright, Shift back now, hyung. I think you have some explaining to do.”

“What are you--” the neighbor cuts himself off when the wolf in his living room changes into a human right before his very eyes. Sanghyuk watches as he goes from pale to bright red in absolute embarrassment once he notices that Jaehwan is indeed naked and not at all hiding what he’s got. 

Jaehwan catches him staring and winks, “Nice to meet you neighbor!” Sanghyuk is going to  _ kill him _ . 

But then their shell shocked neighbor is dropping into a crouch, covering his blushing face with his hands. It’s such a cute display Sanghyuk’s willing to hold off on the murder. 

For now. 

**Author's Note:**

> this is very loosely inspired by a prompt i saw about a drunk werewolf crash landing in their neighbor's yard. how it ballooned into runway werewolves failing to live with humans is beyond me. this is probably going to be a long ride if it entails all the shit i wanna include so bear with me :)


End file.
